Bradley
Only about a hundred men in Poland go by Bradley, so meeting one sticks in the memory. It came from English use of a Germanic place word meaning "broad clearing", and the handful of boys given it arrived mostly in the mid-2010s.
Bradley Pronunciation
Bradley is pronounced brahd-LE-ih (/bradˈlɛɨ/).
What Bradley means
Where Bradley comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Bradley began as an English place name, then a surname, long before parents gave it to a son. It is built from Old English: `brad`, meaning broad, and `leah`, a clearing in woodland. Put together they give the meaning recorded here, broad clearing, in Polish szeroka łąka. The Germanic roots point to open ground where the trees had been felled.
The name traveled from map to person. Families who lived beside such a clearing took Bradley as their surname, and centuries later it crossed into use as a first name, mostly in English-speaking countries.
Modern bearers keep it visible. The cyclist Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France in 2012, the first British rider to do so. The actor Bradley Cooper carries the same name into film. Behind both men sits the old sense of the word, a broad clearing among the trees.
How many people are named Bradley
1 in 209276 men in Poland is named Bradley. 102 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3397 among male names.
Bradley's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Bradley as a middle name
Bradley is a first name for 102 men in Poland and a middle name for another 53, a 66/34 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1029th, between Bautista (53) and Chaim (53).
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#1027 Amadeus53
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#1028 Bautista53
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#1029 Bradley53
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#1030 Chaim53
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#1031 Emeka53